Warren Sapp and the law historically haven’t gotten along too well. The gold jacket has had his fair share of run-ins in the past. Some of them solicited, some of them not quite. Most African Americans have fallen victim to prejudicial and fallacious brutality by authoritarian figures. A massive chunk of the demographic will attest to cops pulling them over or detaining them on no grounds whatsoever. Now, Warren Sapp isn’t most people. Yet, he found himself on the wrong side of this lamentable act.

An incident involving Sapp and the Sheriff’s dept. came to light at a city council meeting in Clearwater, Florida earlier this week. As a Sunshine State native, Warren Sapp was physically present at this hearing, more as an onlooker than anything. As a show of support against unfounded arrests and police abuse. Turns out, Sapp wasn’t just using his platform as a public figure to help expedite justice for his other Florida brethren. Standing in unison for what’s right. He himself became victim to the same a year ago, down in Okeechobee, Florida. Fast forward to the present day, and Sapp has filed a $20 million lawsuit against the Sheriff’s office. A gut-wrenching video of the incident has come into public circulation, and Sapp himself has spoken about what went down.

During the course of the city council meeting, Sapp stood in silence in the corner. Recording the proceedings on his phone. Utilizing his rights from the 1st amendment. In a morbidly ironic way, that’s exactly what landed him in trouble. To lay out the basic skeleton of what went down, Warren Sapp was at a gas station when a random civilian in his proximity got a ticket for speeding. Sapp seemingly noticed some unlawful discrepancy with how the cops were treating the said person, so he walked over for help. This was on camera. He rightfully pointed out the discrepancy. Well, this didn’t go down well with the uniforms. First, Sapp was told he was “obstructing” their duties. He, once again, rightfully pointed out that he wasn’t since freedom of speech is a constitutional law. What followed has spiralled into a multi-million dollar lawsuit.

One cop pulled out handcuffs fairly unprovoked. Sapp was told he was being “detained”. A crowd of people watching this went into a collective state of shock and audible groans. Such was the unjustifiable nature of this. For context, the state attorney dropped charges mere days later. They cited that the cops’ actions were “not legal”. As he now awaits trial and a verdict for the ensuing lawsuit, CU graduate assistant coach Warren Sapp spoke to Deion Sanders’ confidante and content creator, Uncle Neely, to give his side of the story.

Speaking over on “The Pregame Network” YouTube Channel, Sapp explained, “To be violated in less than 30 seconds, and then not to have a supervisor come to me? I speak to the lieutenant. He don’t want to come speak. I speak to the sheriff. The sheriff [is] telling me I got a time, place and manner for my first amendment” Sapp spoke on how this ordeal made a permanent dent on him.

“I spent a lot of time in Okeechobee…because that’s like Florida’s playground right there…the big lake gives you a lot of great fishing and a lot of good times. I love being in the woods. You know, take me in the woods. I’m a country boy…let me enjoy myself. I ain’t been by Okeechobee since, man. [That] put a real bad taste in my mouth.” He proceeded to walk through the exact events as they happened from his POV.

Warren Sapp gives reasons for what caused things to escalate up to a false arrest

Warren Sapp said that the reason he walked over into the speeding ticket fiasco in the first place was because the cop said, “I want to teach you something” to the guy on the receiving end. “Last time I checked, when you hand somebody a ticket, your official duties [are] over…I walked over and looked at the ticket. I wanted to see what the miles per hour was,” he said. The cop said a higher number than what was actually on the ticket. “How are you teaching somebody something when you got the miles per hour wrong?” The whole thing escalated from there, and the result was egregious. Warren Sapp was rather fortunate this was all caught on video. He did outwardly mention that he believed it was all racially charged.

“This is a black man in Okeechobee. He can’t know what he’s talking about,” said Sapp from the perspective of the cops. Uncle Nelly nodded in acknowledgement that this was indeed the crux of the matter. He chimed in, saying, “It’s that ‘Shut up and dribble mentality’” The racist undertones are there for everyone to see, and begrudgingly, no one is surprised.

Preposterous incidents such as this have become so commonplace in society at large that people inadvertently bat an eye. It’s excruciatingly normal. One would hope a figure of Warren Sapp’s ilk going through it can bring about change. Sapp continues being a stand-up figure. He’ll tell you himself that he wavered off-path a few years ago. It’s not uncommon for athletes post-retirement. Finding your purpose can be difficult. It appears Sapp has finally found his. Through coaching kids and through helping those in the community. Hopefully, he can find a fair resolution for what he went through.